A Utah woman has sued Delta Air Lines, alleging permanent hearing loss caused by a cabin pressurization issue on a flight in 2024. Jaci Purser, 43, was hospitalized along with at least 10 other passengers after their Delta flight 1203 from Salt Lake City made an emergency diversion after the malfunction and instead of heading toward Portland landed back in Salt Lake City.The incident was reported at that time, and Delta Air Lines admitted in a statement soon after the incident that the Boeing 737-900 had faced pressurization issues. Data supplied by flight tracking website Flight Radar 24 shows how the pilots quickly looped back to Salt Lake City, where the plane landed safely just 16 minutes after takeoff. On board the aircraft were 140 passengers, including children who were left in obvious pain due to the plane’s pressurization failure.“My ears were popping the entire time, and some children behind me were screaming in pain. After a few minutes, we taxied back to a gate where paramedics came on board, where they attended to multiple people with apparent ear pain.”Another passenger reported that their coworker on the plane had blood coming out of their ear, which was later diagnosed as a ruptured eardrum. In her complaint against Delta, Jaci says she was “severely injured” by the pressurization malfunction and has sustained permanent hearing loss. The complaint alleges that the issue was due to Delta failing to properly maintain the aircraft.

What is pressurization malfunction on a flight?

A pressurization malfunction on a flight means that the aircraft’s cabin pressure control system is not working properly, so the pressure inside the cabin is not being maintained at a safe, comfortable level. When such a situation arises, Oxygen masks are designed to automatically drop — when an aircraft suffers a decompression at high altitude, when the air inside the cabin would be so thin that it would lead to hypoxia. But in this case, the Delta plane never reached an altitude that would automatically trigger the deployment of oxygen masks in the cabin.